Audi Sweeps Front Row in Le Mans Qualifying

For a race in which pole position means practically nothing Thursday's qualifying sessions brought a great show for the fans. The #2 Audi R18 piloted by Benoît Tréluyer set the quickest time of 3 minutes and 25.738 seconds around the 8.469 mile long Circuit de la Sarthe. The #1 Audi of Romain Dumas was only 0.061 of a second behind to secure an all Audi front row. The quickest Peugeot was the #9 which was just 0.272 of a second behind pole position. In fact in one of the closest qualifying rounds in recent years the top six competitors were all separated by under six tenth of a second. This year the brand new Audi R18 and the equally brand new Peugeot 908 are running as close together as the two rivals ever have setting up an extremely competitive race tomorrow. With the ACO mandated slow refilling for the diesel cars fuel economy will likely play an important role along with running a clean race with no driver errors or mechanical problems.

First in the P2 category was the #26 Signatech Nissan with a time of 3 minutes and 41.458 seconds while the #55 BMW Motorsport M3 GT took the top spot in the GT Pro category with a time of 3:57.592. The #61 AF Corse F430 was the quickest in the GTE AM category with a time of 4:01.282.

The 79th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans starts at 3 PM local time or 9 AM Easter/6 AM Pacific. Stay tuned here for an hourly blog updates. Catch the race on Speed and on the Speed online stream here. Listen to the entire race with Radio Le Mans and stay up to date with live timing and scoring. Follow the race for the lead even closer with special access directly from Audi
and Peugeot.

Endurance Racing Explained

Here is a nice video of Allan McNish explaining some of the physical and teamwork aspects of racing that are hard to understand when watching racing on TV. This certainly sheds some light on the effort reqired to compete at the top levels of motorsport such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Take a look below.

Vote on a Ford GT Sucessor

The original Ford GT40 was a four time Le Mans winning race car in the late 1960s and still stands as one of the most iconic Le Mans racers of all time. Naturally when Ford decided to build a super car in the twenty first century they went with a reborn GT40. Built in 2005 and 2006 the Ford GT arrived on the scene with a tremendous amount of hype from the general public and the automotive press, fortunately for Ford the GT was able to live up to the hype with its outstanding performance. As it's been over five years since the last GT rolled of the assembly line it appears that Ford is once again looking at producing a supercar* to compete with the world's best. Take a look at these three sketches and head on over to Road & Track to vote for you favorite. My vote goes to the silver Ford GT by Radovan Varicak.






*Road&Track thinks that Ford may build a GT successor in the next few years, but this is certainly not guaranteed. However a good positive public reaction should help so go ahead and vote!

Commercial Review: Corvette's Just To Be Fair

I gave high ratings to the last Corvette commercial that I saw, but this new one has a serious stretching the truth problem. First let's start with the positives, the commercial features the Corvette which was a competitive product for Chevy even when the rest of its car division was not. Second it features Corvette's involvement in ALMS racing which has some of the most exciting production based racing in the world. However, the main argument of the commercial is that Corvette had to "dial back" the ZR1's power output to race in ALMS. While it is true that the production Corvette ZR1 makes more power than the GT racing version there is also a little fact that gets in the way, rules. The governing body that runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans and creates ALMS rules does an excellent job of equalizing different types of engines to create competitive racing. The rules specify that a supercharged engine can at most have a displacement of 4 liters. Thus the GT Corvette cannot use a "dialed back" version of the ZR1 engine and in fact it uses a modified Z06 engine (take a look at a truthful Corvette Racing video about the GT engine below) The upcoming C7 Corvette is said to use the next generation of the legendary smallblock with 5.5 liters of displacement as its base engine with a power output of around 430-450 horsepower. Mathematically, Corvette would likely need to "add power to go racing" instead of "dialing it back by about 168 horsepower". The discrepancy between the claim in the commercial and reality is particularly shameful because the ZR1 does perfectly fine on its own without the need to stretch the truth as the production ZR1 is quicker around a track than the production versions of BMWs, Porsches and Ferraris that the GT Corvette competes against on the track.

Sebring Live Updates

You can watch the race on ESPN3 or at the ALMS website. Follow the race order with timing and scoring here.

At the start:

Peugeot leads while Audi takes second and third but by the next lap Peugeot is back to first and second. In GT Oliver Gavin takes the lead while BMW is fighting the Ferrari of Bruni for second. Bruni takes back the lead 10 minutes later. The BMW of Dirk Mueller loses its tire after contact with the Level 5 Honda. First caution comes when the Lamborghini is stranded on the grass with a broken wheel. Jamie Melo takes the GT lead shortly after the restart. At first hour The number 1 Audi loses many laps two to cut left rear tires. Hour and a half into the race McNish takes a 45 second after a pit stop. A second caution comes for a LMC car stranded on the track and wipes out McNish's lead.

Hour Three
A third caution comes out two hours into the race with the Patrick Long bouncing into the Corvette of Jan Magnussen spinning both cars, however the Ferrari of Johannes van Overbeek took the worst with a strong hit into the tire wall after contact with the Corvette. At the top of the field The number 2 Audi of Tom Kristensen is close behind chasing the number 8 Peugeot of Sarrazin. In P2 Luis Diaz had taken over the lead in his Lola Honda over the Nissan Oreca of Lucas Ordonez for some laps before having to pit. Kristensen took the overall lead shortly after the Peugeot pit stop but pitted himself shortly at the 9 hour mark.

Hour Four
BMW is first and second in GT with Ferrari of Mika Salo third. The fourth caution of the race comes out on lap 99 of the race after a Porsche caught fire. The caution has bunched up the front of the field with the Peugeot only 10 seconds ahead of the Audi. However the green racing was short lived with an another caution for the AJR Porsche stuck on the straight.

Hour Five
After the restart the number 7 Peugeot hit the number 2 Audi and should be getting a penalty if it gets back out after repairs. The race for the overall win is essentially over now. With that said, Simon Pagenaud has overtaken the number 8 Peugeot for the overall lead with an excellent and most importantly clean pass when Peugoet was slowed down by some traffic. Only moments later a sixth yellow came out after a car in the tire wall.

Hour Six
The Honda Performance Development P1 has lost the overall lead after the latest restart but has been able to remain second with Marino Franchitti a few seconds ahead of last year's 908 driven by Oliver Panis. Meanwhile Jamie Melo in the new 458 Italia us first in GT with the next four in GT less than five seconds behind.

Half Way Through The Race

Six hours after the race began there is another full course yellow. Thanks to all of the caution periods there is close racing for the lead and GT. Soon after the restart the Oreca 908 HDI Fap takes over second place overall. After the restart the racing is extremely competitive in GT as demonstrated by Toni Vilander's excellent clean pass on Tommy Milner for third in GT. A little later Pierre Kafer was able to take advantage of a slight mistake by Dirk Mueller to take the GT lead.

Hour Eight

With five hours left 'till the checkered flag the race is once again under yellow for the time being. After the restart the Oreca Peugeot leads with the David Brabham piloted Honda 6 seconds back and the factory Peugeot 10 seconds back. Pierre Kafer continues to lead GT with the BMWs 4 and 8 seconds back.

Hour Nine

Another caution and another restart gave Loic Duval and Oreca an opportunity to overtake the Brabam's HPD effort with a little more than 4 hours remaining.

Hour Ten

Things seemed to have slowed down for a bit as the race approached three hours left. A pit-stop had the leader change its front bodywork to fix broken louvers. Immediately after the pit-sop Pedro Lamy spun the previously race leading 908. The spin and the long pit stop have put the factory 908 in third. Andy Priaulx continues to lead GT and has opened up a 25 second lead over Giancarlo Fisichella in the F430.

Two Hours To Go

With two hours left and the circuit completely dark Sebring is not in its homestretch. Nicolas Lapierre leads with Simon Pagenaud seconds and Pedro Lamy chasing after his spin. BMW continues to place first in second in GT. The P2 category has found its competitors visiting the pit-lane frequently, Ryan Hunter-Reay leads overall in his Lola-Honda but is only 29th overall.

One Hour To Go

With a little under an hour left in the race Pagenaud leads the race having just inherited the lead when the Oreca 908 pitted. Loic Duval in the Oreca is 17 seconds behind Pagenaud and the new factory 908 is 39 seconds behind the leader. All three competitors for first place will likely need at least another pit-stop. Pagenaud and Montagny can significantly improve their odds of winning if they can stay out about 10 more minutes and guarantee only one final pit-stop. We are in for a great last 50 minutes!

The final pit stops are over and Duval leads in his Oreca 908 HDI FAP with Pagenaud's Honda 34 seconds behind, the factory 908 is third 58 seconds behind. It's now up to the drivers in the last 30 minutes!